Around two years later, I was sitting across from my boyfriend at dinner. We were at a nice restaurant, and I felt out of place.

"Abi? Honey? Can I ask you something?" He asked, his voice kind of loud, and quick.

"Mmhm." I nodded, smiling.

"Okay, um, so, uh, it's, um, like, since we've uh, we..."

"Joseph? You okay?"

"Yeah, uh forget about it." He sighed.

"No, what's your question?" I asked.

"It's fine, uh, do we need a new fridge?" He asked, taking a bite of steak.

"Joseph, if you think for one second that we can afford another fridge, we can't afford a head of lettuce." I laughed, "I mean yeah, the fruit drawer is broken, and the lunchmeat drawer, and it's tiny, and the ice maker doesn't work anymore, but, I mean, hey, it's a working fridge!" I kept going, sort of zoning out on my tangent.

"Abi?" He asked again, and I looked down to my right and my face drained of color.

"Jo, I, I'm uh, I..." I trailed off, seeing other couples stopping their conversations and staring at my boyfriend, on one knee in front of my chair.

"Will you marry me?" He asked, and I blushed a lot, due to how open it was.

"Mmhm." I nodded, my smile spreading quickly, "yeah, I will, I'll marry you." I giggled, and wrapped my arms around him quickly. I felt his arms go around me too, then he quickly pushed a ring onto my finger. "Wait, wait, I wanna see it." I giggled, pulling away from the hug, to see the diamond sparkling on my finger.

"I, I'm sorry it's small, it's all I could afford, it-"

"Joseph, Joseph, I love it, I love it so much. I love you! I love you so much." I said, spinning off into a little excitable digression.

"I love you too, now sweet one we're causing a bit of a scene." He added, standing up, and pulling me up as well.

"When are we getting married?" I asked, sitting back in my chair, as he was getting back into his own.

"As soon as we can, cupcake." He smiled at me.

"Okay, where are we getting married? Do you w-"

"We can sort out logistics later, honey bug,
now, let's enjoy dinner." Joseph said, holding my hand from across the table.

"Okay." I smiled a little, looking across the table at my fiancé, trying to comprehend that I was going to spend the rest of my life with him.

•••

"Abigail Anderson." I said a few nights later, Joseph and I were sitting on the couch together.

"Huh?" He looked at me oddly.

"That's what my name's gonna be, Abigail Anderson." I smiled at him.

"You're gonna take my last name?"

"Mmhm." I nodded, he looked surprised. "Did you not want me to?" I asked.

"No, no, I love it, I just didn't expect you to, I mean, a lot of girls don't."

"Jo, I hate my name, I hate having my parents last name, of course I'm taking your name." I laughed a little, leaning into his side.

"Okay." He sighed, happily, then ran his fingers down my hair, "we need to talk about the wedding."

"Mmkay." I smiled, looking up at him.

"Okay, so, do you want a big wedding?" He asked.

"Uh, I mean, I'd love one, but we don't really know that many people." I pointed out.

"That's true, we'll do a small wedding, that's cheaper anyways."

"Okay." I nodded.

"And Abigail, I know this might be kind of hard to hear, but, we really do need to be thinking about cost."

"I know." I mumbled. I knew it wasn't going to be my dream wedding, Joseph was still in college, and we were both working. I was the assistant manager of a local restaurant, and Joseph was working part time at a Barnes and Noble in the mall.

"Okay, so, what we really need is a venue, an officiant, your dress, my tux, and catering, and a cake." He listed, "and those are just the essentials lovey, we also would want decorations, flowers, programs, music, and like hair and makeup for you."

"I know." I mumbled, a little upset. "I mean, I could do a really simple white dress, and maybe just a sheet cake?" I suggested.

"Are you sure?" He asked, "I mean, I know the dress is important."

"It's fine." I shrugged, "I know the brides family is supposed to pay for the wedding, and that's not gonna happen, so I need to make sacrifices here."

"Honey, you don't need to make all the sacrifices just because your parents flaked on everything." Joseph sighed, and rubbed my arm. "I won't do a tux, I'll wear dress pants and a nice white shirt and black tie. How about that?"

"Hot." I giggled.

"Me in dress pants and a nice shirt is hot?" He asked.

"Yeah." I smiled, then kissed him, pushing my hands through his hair.

"Mmkay love, stay focused on the wedding." He laughed, and I pulled myself onto his lap.

"Okay." I smiled at him, then kissed his cheek.

"You're going to make this very difficult for us." He groaned, and I quickly covered my ring.

"No take backs, this is mine now, you're stuck with me forever, Anderson."

"I'm not un-proposing." He laughed, "let's go down our list and see how we can reduce cost on each thing." Joseph suggested, and I hopped off of his lap.

"Okay, venue." I started.

"I'll talk to Pastor Ron, we can do it at the church. I'm sure he'll help us out, he knows our situation." My fiancé said, and I nodded my head a little.

"He likes us." I smiled.

"He does." Joseph nodded, "so that's the venue and officiant, now, catering." He sighed.

"Um, I can talk to Paul, see how much my employee discount can apply to catering, like, from the restaurant." I shrugged, "Italian's okay, right?"

"That's great! Okay, so, we can try and get married at the church, by Ron, do a simple dress for you, dress clothes for me, you can handle catering, and we can do a Costco sheet cake." He listed.

"I can make cute cupcakes, so, we can have the cupcake tower on display, but feed everyone the sheet cake." I added, "I mean, it may not be super traditional, but, it's cheaper, and I don't think anyone's gonna complain."

"Yeah." He sighed. "Now once we get the prices for those things, we can address everything else with the rest of the budget."

"Mmkay." I nodded, then nuzzled into his side, "I'm tired."

"Okay." He smiled a little bit, then kissed my hair.
•••

Joseph was still at work, and I was working out a guest list for the wedding. We were planning to each make our guest lists separately, then merge them with the venue numbers. I had all of my coworkers listed, and was at a loss to list anyone else. I looked through my contacts and my heart sunk a little seeing, Dad 💕, still there. I quickly clicked on the contact, then held the ringing phone to my ear.

"This is Ryan Edminston, who is this?" He asked, and my stomach churned.

"Um, Dad? This is me." I said, nervously.

"Abigail?" He asked.

"Mmhm."

"Why are you calling?" He seemed confused, and slightly angry.

"Um, so, uh, Joseph, you remember Joseph, he proposed, and we're engaged. Anyways, we were wondering i-"

"I'm not paying for your wedding." He laughed.

"No! It's not that, um, we're getting married in March, we were hoping you could come."

"Abigail, it's been years since we've seen you, I mean, I don't think we can do that."

"Please? I mean, I, both of you would play an important part in the ceremony, and it would mean a lot if you came."

"I'm sorry." He sighed.

"Dad, c'mon, you don't need to bring a gift or anything, I need you there to give me away." I mumbled.

"We kicked you out two years ago. What would make you think I'd come back for that?"

"Dad." I protested, "I just, I, you're my dad."

"I got that. I'm sorry, Abigail, I don't think we can go."

"Dad!" I shouted into the phone, "you need to go! You need to come to my wedding." I whimpered a little, "it's important, we're supposed to dance and everything, and Mom's supposed to give a toast! You're my parents." I mumbled, then fell silent hearing the steady beeping on the line.

I tossed my phone onto the floor beside my bed, and collapsed onto the bed.

"Abi?" I heard Joseph's voice in the room, and then I felt his hand on my back. "Sweetheart, I'm, I'm sorry."

"He's not coming, they're not coming. I don't know what I expected, it's just, it's hard." I mumbled, pushing myself up in bed, looking at my obviously tired boyfriend.

"I'm really sorry love, I really am." He rubbed my arm a little, and kissed my forehead.

"He's not gonna give me away. No ones gonna give me away." I realized, and Joseph pulled his phone out, calling someone.

"Who are you calling?" I asked.

"My dad. Abigail, he loves you, he'll walk you down the aisle I promise."

"Oh." I mumbled, then he held the phone to his ear.

"Hey, uh, Dad, Dad, can I put you on speaker with me and A?" He asked into the phone, then turned it on speaker, setting it on the bed.

"What's going on, Abigail?" He asked.

"Uh, hi Mr. Anderson." I smiled.

"Dad, we have a question." Joseph said, "um, Abi's dad backed out of the wedding, we were wondering if you could give her away?"

"Honey! Yes! Yes of course." He said, quickly. "Of course I will, sweetie, I'd be honored to."

"Thanks." I mumbled, smiling, and falling into Joseph's side.

"No problem at all." He said, "I'm sorry about your dad."

"It's fine. I was stupid for thinking he'd say yes."

"You shouldn't of had to ask him." Mr. Anderson pointed out.

"I know." I sighed, upset.

"Well, I've got to go, kiddos, but, Abigail I'll totally give you away. I love you, okay?"

"Okay." I smiled a little bit.

"Bye Jo, bye A." He said.

"Bye Dad, love you." Joseph said into the phone, and I heard a muffled 'love you' as Joseph hung up. "Told you." He smiled at me.

"Yeah, you did." I smiled back. "Now come here." I opened my arms, motioning for a hug. "You look tired, hard day?"

"Inventory." He groaned, crawling over to me and hugging me.

"I'm sorry." I sighed, and kissed his head.

"I'm just, I'm gonna sleep in this." He decided, looking at his work uniform.

"Mmkay." I smiled, and pulled our blanket over his legs, then nuzzled into the bed. Eventually he fell asleep half on top of me, and I fell asleep
with my arm around him.

•••

I DID IT!

I've been having a good summer yay.

Hey. So. Follow my twitter. Please. Please please please please please.

@charlittle123

Hi, please.

My icon is a pic of Christy Altomare (if that helps)

Anywho. Do you remember when I did character questions??

Can you ask Kevin some?

I want to answer Kevin questions wow. Please ask Kevin questions!!!

PLEASE.

(Sorry I feel like I have to beg for things at this point)

Please.

Okay I think that's it.

Wait, requests??

Okay now I'm done.

Love you.

We'll be back to a Lin chapter very soon. Going to take a one part break from this AU for that.

Thanks for reading!

- Abi